WORKING TOGETHER AS A TEAM Why Should I Care? Crucial Activities for Team Undercurrents Stages of Team Growth Recipe for a Successful Team Working Through Group Problems Constructive Feedback General Guidelines Ten Common Problems and Solutions Team Decision Making

Why Should I Care? The Nature of Contemporary Design Individual and Team Accomplishment Evaluation in 554

Nature of Contemporary Design Shorter and Shorter Design Times Parallel Performance of Tasks More Essential Large Projects Division of Design Effort among Many Small Projects Team Size Increasing Individuals and Teams of Two Disappearing

Accomplishment Individual Accomplishment - Desirable Traits Knowledgeable Creative Proactive ?

Interactive - Subtraits? Positive Interaction - Whole More than Sum of Parts Negative Interaction - Whole Less than Sum of Parts Team Accomplishment - Added Trait Accomplishment

Evaluation in 554 Individual Effort Report in Final Report Not just something you submit, but consensus of team members Project Log (optional) A detailed record of activities and accomplishments On-line and up-to-date Team Project Demonstration Technical and Presentation Project Final Report Technical and Presentation

Undercurrents Personal Identity in the Team Membership, inclusion Influence, control, mutual trust Relationships between Team Members What kind of relationships? Interaction of members of different ranks Friendly and informal or strictly business? Open or guarded? Work well together or argue and disagree? Like me? Like them? Loyalty to Team Loyal to team or self Team responsibility versus other obligations Influencing outsiders

Recipe for Successful Team Beneficial Team Behaviors Clarity in Team Goals An Overall Project Framework Clearly Defined Roles Clear Communication Well-Defined Decision Procedures Established Ground Rules Awareness of the Group Process

Harmful Behaviors Exclusion – blocking one or more team member or members from participation Harassment – any actions whether verbal, written or physical that makes a team member feel uncomfortable Targets the person rather than the problem Possibly based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or country of origin Academic misconduct Inappropriate design reuse Interference with another teams efforts

Beneficial Behaviors Seek diversity in team constituency, both technical and otherwise Foster involvement and participation of all team members Understand to a degree, variations in contribution by team members Transfer team resources to solve the problems that appear most difficult

Constructive Feedback Acknowledge need for feedback Give both positive and negative feedback Understand the context Know when to give feedback Know how to give feedback Know how to receive feedback

Problem-Handling Guidelines Anticipate and prevent group problems whenever possible. Think of each problem as a group problem. Neither over-react nor under-react - Leader options: Do nothing Off-line conversation (minimal intervention) Impersonal Group Time (low intervention) Off-line Confrontation (medium intervention) In-group Confrontation (high intervention) Expulsion from team (do not use; instead:) Contact course team

Ten Common Problems Floundering Overbearing participants Dominating participants Reluctant participants Unquestioned acceptance of opinions as facts Rush to accomplishments Attrition Discounts and “Flops” Wanderlust: Digression and Tangents Feuding Team Members

Crucial Activities for Team Get Organized Maintain Communications Fix Obvious Problems Document Progress, Problems, and Rationale Have a process in place for major team decisions

Team Decision Making Goal: To reach consensus Consensus is: Finding a proposal acceptable enough so that all members can support it; no member opposes it. Consensus is NOT: A unanimous vote; a majority vote; everyone totally satisfied. Requires: Time, active participation, communication skills, creative thinking, and open-mindedness Techniques Brainstorming Multivoting Nominal Group Technique

Brainstorming Goal - to examine as broad a range of options as possible Rules - Encourage free-wheeling - No discussion - No judgment - Allow hitch-hiking - Write visibly all ideas Sequence Review the topic (as a question) Minute or two of silence to think Call out and write down ideas

Multivoting Goal - Select most important or popular ideas from a list with limited discussion and difficulty. Generate list and number. Combine similar items if agreed. If necessary, renumber. Have all members vote for several items to discuss by writing down numbers; about 1/3 of items per member. Tally votes using secret ballot if necessary. Eliminate items with fewest votes (less than about 25%). Repeat until only a few items - if no clear favorite discuss or vote again.

Nominal Group Technique - Part 1 Goal: Generate and narrow a list of options with “nominal” level of interaction Define task in form of a question. Describe purpose of discussion and rules. Introduce and clarify question. Generate ideas in silence. List ideas using “round robin” priority. Clarify and discuss ideas.

Nominal Group Technique - Part 2 Reduce list to no more than 50 items. Give each participant number of cards equal to about 20% of size of list; typically even number. Members make selections, one per card. Members assign points to each selection based on the number of cards. Maximum number of points equal number of cards. May reuse point values. Collect cards and tally votes. Select item with highest point total. Review results and display - Surprises? Objections? Lobbying? Another Vote?

Application to ECE 554 Project Teams Have a team leader - will reduce your grades if you don’t! Make sure goals are clear Use a deployment chart for planning Use decision techniques in architectural step and for other major or controversial decisions Watch for team problems and pitfalls Deal with interpersonal problems